The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance will be watching the Bernie Sanders town hall on CNN this evening and live-Tweeting some of the best takes.

Here's the round-up of the best of the left of Texas from last week.

John Cornyn tweeted a Mussolini quote -- which, in Ted Cruz/soft porn historical tradition, will probably be blamed on a staffer at some point -- and it went horribly awry.

“We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become.” Benito Mussolini

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) February 24, 2019

This is where the head scratching begins because, first of all, the Texas Republican is outspoken against Democratic Socialism. Secondly, he’s running for reelection in 2020, and the comment seems to have something missing.

An old schoolmate of Cornyn's weighed in about his long-time predilection for dictators.

Since Sen. Cornyn has decided to insult socialists with the lie that their thinking is "incompatible with freedom," let me remind him that he was a big supporter of George Wallace when he was in high school in Tokyo in 1968. I know because I was there. https://t.co/Oaugs2A3TY https://t.co/msHYCbb10P

— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) February 25, 2019

Sema Hernandez, Cornyn's only announced challenger to date -- but still invisible to the corporate media -- responded.

HOUSTON, Texas -- Senate Candidate Sema Hernandez has called on Sen. John Cornyn to retract his quote of deceased fascist Benito Mussolini, which is reflective of Mr. Cornyn’s past support of restricting the rights of individuals.

— Sema 🌹 (@Sema4Texas) February 25, 2019

Texas progressives have their candidate ready and waiting for the US Senate race next year.

In 2018 @Sema4Texas got 24% of the vote!#Sema2020 is gong over the top! #TXSen

Medicare For All
Tuition Free Education
Green New Deal
Sustainable Infrastructure
Federal Jobs Guarantee
Living Wage
Labor Rights
Women's Rights
LGBTQI Rights
Indigenous Rights
Immigration Reform pic.twitter.com/G5Xs9sAeC2

— #Bernie2020 🌹🔇🌐 (@safemanusa) February 25, 2019

In other 2020 election news, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had his weekly Democratic presidential primary update.  David Collins transcribed his Tweet thread about Tulsi Gabbard into a blog post. 

In a 2019 Houston municipal elections post, Stace at Dos Centavos directed us to the spreadsheet of all candidates who have filed for mayor and city council races to date.  And from TXElects:

HD125 special: Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a March 12 special runoff election to fill the unexpired term of former Rep. Justin Rodriguez (D-San Antonio), who resigned to take an appointment to the Bexar Co. Commissioners Court. Republican Fred Rangel (38%) faces former San Antonio council member Ray Lopez (19%). An abbreviated early voting period begins March 4. Turnout for the February 12 special election was 6.1%.

HD145 special: Early voting begins today for the March 5 special runoff election to fill the unexpired House term of Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston). Houston funeral home executive Christina Morales (36%) faces former Houston council member Melissa Noriega (31%). Turnout for the January 29 special election was 4.8%.

From the Lege, HPM reports that all twelve Senate Democrats will vote against confirming Texas Secretary of State David Whitley.

If Whitley’s nomination is left pending for the rest of the session, he can serve only until the Legislature leaves Austin in late May. After that, Abbott could nominate a replacement who would immediately take over as secretary of state and serve at least until the next legislative session in 2021.

If the Senate votes and Whitley is rejected, he must leave office immediately.

Carlos Sanchez of Texas Monthly posts about a 'Worst' legislator in real time, Angela Paxton.  Emma Platoff at the TexTrib has the details.

In what state Sen. Angela Paxton describes as an effort to safely expand Texas’ burgeoning financial tech industry, the freshman Republican from McKinney has filed a bill that would empower the office of her husband, Attorney General Ken Paxton, to exempt entrepreneurs from certain state regulations so they can market “innovative financial products or services.”

One of those exemptions would be working as an “investment adviser” without registering with the state board. Currently, doing so is a felony in Texas -- one for which Ken Paxton was issued a civil penalty in 2014 and criminally charged in 2015.

And Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast collated several of the lower-profile criminal justice reform bills worth tracking as they progress through the Capitol.  He also sees momentum for bail reform in the wake of a plethora of favorable statewide newspaper op-eds.

Naveena Sadasivam at the Texas Observer wrote about the shocking amount of natural gas being burned off by Eagle Ford shale frackers.

The study, published earlier this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, looked at 49 rural Texas counties that are part of or adjacent to the Eagle Ford Shale and identified almost 44,000 oil and gas flares, combustion stacks that burn off natural gas. The researchers found that just five counties — Dimmit, La Salle, McMullen, Karnes and DeWitt — accounted for about 70 percent of the flaring, and the vast majority of flares were at oil-producing fracking sites.

Texas Vox recommends you follow the TCEQ on social media.

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub remembered Barbara Jordan on her 83rd birthday last Thursday.  So did cartoonist Two Party Opera.

Richard Croxdale at The Rag Blog reviewed the new Eugene V. Debs graphic biography, pointing out the Texas connection.

And SocraticGadfly loved him some Kraft Porkaroni and Cheese.